Required watching for everyone

I assume the others watching An Inconvenient Truth with me at
the Grace Lutheran Church in Mendham on a Friday night not too long
ago had the same totally nauseous feeling when they left. Now, that
I know, I cant unknow. The emperors clothes are gone forever, the
toothpaste is out of the tube, the genie is out of the bottle,
there is no turning back. It will be hard to sleep knowing what I
know. But whats worse is that lots of people in high places know
and yet they pretend they dont know. Or to paraphrase Mark Twain,
the worst troubles come when youre so cock sure about something
that is so wrong. The film maker and former vice president, Al
Gore, showed statistics upon statistics, based on scientific
studies piled on top of scientific studies. They all pointed to the
same obvious fact about the relatively sudden burst of global
warming and how if it is unchecked it will have cataclysmic effects
on the planet; not in hundreds of years but in 50 years or sooner
or even today. Look at the photos of the Category IV hurricanes,
read the numbers about the record number of tornadoes in the U.S.
last year or the first time a hurricane hit Brazil. It will make
your skin crawl. Gore made the most compelling case as he debunked
the basic myths that are put forth by too many people in their
ostrich-like efforts to deny global warming. Myth one: The
scientific studies are mixed; there is no consensus about the fact
that global warming is increasing at an alarming rate and is
directly related to fossil fuel emissions. Wrong. Every major
scientific study has concluded that global warming is real and
dangerous and getting worse. Myth two: The earth has always gone
through cyclical changes in climate and the current phase of global
warming is not unlike past phases. Wrong. Look at the facts and
tables and graphs Gore presented. Myth three: The earth is so big
that nothing so Armageddon-like could happen as is projected in the
scientific studies about the future effects of global warming.
Wrong. The science shows that the polar ice caps are shrinking; the
sea levels are rising; the ocean water is warming; and the
frequency and severity of hurricanes and other major weather events
are climbing. Is that enough? If not, theres more to come. Myth
four: It would be much too expensive to get the fuel plants and
motor vehicles around the world to cut back on emissions. Wrong. In
fact, its the other way around. If global warming continues at
this pace, it will cost billons to relocate people from flooded
areas, if it is even possible. I dont exactly know why but the
most chilling moment of the film involved an animated scene showing
a polar bear trying to climb aboard a small ice floe, only to have
the floe break up, leaving the exhausted bear trying for another
floe, in order to save himself from drowning. Gore cited a new
scientific study that showed how polar bears have recently been
drowning in significant numbers because they have to swim much
longer distances from floe to floe. Thats because the polar waters
are warming and there are fewer floes. Perhaps I feel like those
polar bears. It is a brief film, about 90 minutes. But it is
relentless and so thoroughly documented that the only people who
could doubt its facts are those who still insist that the attack on
the Twin Towers was just a giant hologram. Then again, there are
many people who still cling to the fantasy that Saddam Hussein and
Osama bin Laden were in bed together before 9/11. Depressing as
most of it was, the film did not end on a down note. Gore talked
about the changes that can be affected from major governmental
efforts like increasing gas mileage and providing real incentives
to refine wind and solar power systems. He gave equal time to the
need for individuals to do their share from buying hybrid vehicles
to using energy-saving lighting in the kitchen. After the film,
there was a short period for comments from the audience. Most of
the talk came from the 15 or so teenagers who sat in stone silence
during the movie. One youngster, probably no more than 10 or 11,
his hair down to the middle of his back, yelled out that it seemed
global warming got worse under Bush. Well, it probably has but the
preceding administrations were not exactly gangbusters when it came
to actually doing something to slow down global warming. Everybody
must see An Inconvenient Truth. It should be everybodys duty. If
you dont see the film, explain why to your child. Explain to him
why the snows of Kilimanjaro are less snowy. Tell him why Glacier
National Park is a mere skeleton of its former self. Show him why
there is a vast lake where there was not long ago a glacier at
Upsala Glacier in Argentina. Then try to explain away the fact that
20 or the 21 hottest years ever measured occurred within the last
25 years. Too many of our leaders are so quick to talk about how we
cant appease the enemy or make believe the terrorists dont exist
and that we have to take the battle to them. That was the same talk
before World War II when Winston Churchill warned of the gathering
storm and the world appeased Hitler. Well, there is a real
gathering storm. The president knows it. Many people in power know
it. And yet they are ignoring it, just like those appeasers before
World War II. And one last fact raised by Gore. To those who think
the problem of global warming is insoluble, think about how
scientists put a man on the moon or how smallpox was ended and then
say we cant do anything about global warming. Its all a matter of
will.

Watch this discussion.Stop watching this discussion.

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